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Running a training

What to know if you have a course you wish to run in coordinate with FairSay

Good to hear you are interested in running a training pre ECF (or other time if you prefer)

What courses do people want?

It is hard to judge what courses will be the most appealing. Often the only to know is to offer them and see if people book. Sometimes, courses people have asked have had few bookings, while others they didn't ask for were popular...but ultimately ones that have been running for years seem to be the best bet (so start!).

How FairSay-coordinated trainings work

Income: Trainers gets paid based on the number of people who participate. It is structured so a majority of the revenue to go to the trainer, but the more people there the higher proportion the trainer gets. That means both FairSay and the trainer share the risk of running it, but if it doesn't happen it costs the trainer nothing (other than any time put in and the same for FairSay). The share FairSay takes is in three parts: costs (room, catering), logistics (setup, invoicing, communication, coordination, basic promotion) and results (people who book that are attributed to FairSay efforts)

Promotion: the experience so far is that many people book on trainings not because it is offered, but because they are asked by the trainer or someone the trainer knows (or that FairSay knows). So trainers need promote it too. this isn't just tweets, FB posts and LinkedIn posts, but emails to people/organisations the trainer know, mentioning it face-to-face when with clients and giving presentations and building alliances with people/networks that are the target audience. For instance FairSay often get Engaging Networks and Care2 to promote FairSay-run trainings and I invite them to present for 30-60 minutes at the training about a mutually-agreed topic that compliments your expertise.

FairSay provide tracking capabilities to help you ensure that when people book, it is attributed to you...and if people book another course someone else runs due to your promotion efforts, then you get the £50 'results' fee for that. Since tracking isn't perfect, if you wish to dispute a booking attribution, that is OK and we can explore a fair solution (since often our networks and promotions will overlap!)

If the training doesn't have enough bookings (I suggest 6 people but some trainers have accepted less and got less income) then I try and cancel it 15-20 days in advance (depending on the booking conditions of the room) and we can try and reschedule it again for another date and attract any bookings from the original date to the new one.

FairSay's experience is that open trainings are REALLY tough to promote to the right people (those in the target audience, those interested and those with budget) so nothing is guaranteed, but it is structured so it is worth trying for both without too much risk by either (other than lost time).

Tracking

Like all tracking, it is imperfect, so in addition to this, if you've promoted it somewhere and people have come through and booked, you can say you think they found out through you and I'll trust that.

To track to the training page o the fairsay site:

Put ?s=cdsj350 at the end of each URL so I can see when people come through on that link. (where cd=your initials, sj=supporter journey and 350=the price you offered it at).

These should be stored as referrers or landing pages - but if they go off and browse after landing, it is lost (links on the page open in a new window - so in that case if they return they won't be lost).

This means you can also promote other people's courses and get credit for it ;-) Plus it means by putting the pricing in the link, I know you have agreed to a lower pricing (if it works).

This course is particularly relevant if you want to start, or to progress, a career in communications and campaigning for social change, whether in a charity or non-governmental organisation; in a public sector body; in a political party or election campaigning setting; or even in a corporate social responsibility role. It could also be a stepping-stone towards a PhD and an academic career in this growing field of study. For more information, please contact the course enquiries team or joint course leader Michaela O’Brien at M.Obrien2@westminster.ac.uk